Enemy Mine?
by Aelerra
Summary: Changed summary because it sucked. When Kisshu gets hurt protecting Ichigo from a mystery assasin, he gets involved in something meant only for her. While trapped on a ship somewhere, Ichigo can't help but change her opinion about him. KxI PxT ENJOY!
1. Situation

Enemy Mine?

Chapter 1: Situation

**Disclaimer/Author's Note:** *Hey people, it's me, Aelerra. I'm just here to say that I do NOT own Tokyo Mew Mew, or many of the characters. Don't sue me! I'm only 13 years old. Special thanks to my Beta, Alpha Flyer. Thank you, Alpha Flyer! I just hope you enjoy my story. It's my first one, and I hope to be able to make more, and possibly a sequel to this one. And some apologies for out-of-character behaviour. I can't seem to mimic any personalities other than my own. But in the meantime, read and review, and hopefully comment on your favourite (or least favourite) part. Oh, and I should also note that, well, I'm not Japanese, and I don't understand the terms of names based on rank, family or whatever. So, they're just going to refer to each other by first name. And, I'm also going to say that I only watched the TV show, so please forgive me for any manga-nonsensical nonsense that happens.

So, enjoy the story!*

Ichigo was walking down the street to her school, swinging a book bag back and forth in her hands. It was a cold day. There was a powerful wind whipping around her feet and there were ominous dark clouds in the sky, threatening to start a heavy downpour at any second. Ichigo was kicking a pebble as she was strolling along and whistling to herself. She turned to the sky, and suddenly she had the sensation that she was being watched.

_Knowing my weird life, I probably am being watched. _Ichigo thought to herself, and she continued walking and whistling.

Ichigo walked past a tall, leafy tree. Once again, she had the sensation of a pair of eyes boring into her as she was walking. She whipped her head around, causing her cherry-red hair to fly around and get in her dark brown eyes. She turned her head in every direction, seeing nothing but the trees, the clouds and the street she had already walked, as well as some dust and dead leaves blowing around in the wind. Ichigo shrugged off the feeling and kept going.

_Don't want to be late for school again. _Ichigo forced herself to smile, though it was a very feeble smile.

Behind the leaves of the large tree, a pair of large, golden eyes were just barely visible. They blinked and a voice from behind them sighed heavily.

"Ichigo, my Kitten, what will I have to do for you before you realize?" the voice murmured.

The small, thin shape of Kisshu's face emerged from the leaves that were guarding it from Ichigo's eyes moments before. Unseen and unheard, he had flown out from his hiding place and moved to a new one, closer to Ichigo's position. At this point, Ichigo was starting to get a little alarmed at the feeling. The hair on the back of her neck was standing on end as she looked around once more. She saw something dart into a shadow out of the corner of her eye. Ignoring her current task (which was, for the curious, to get to school on time…), she decided to scope out the area for her pursuer. Ichigo ran toward the shadow where the figure she had seen had taken refuge, and she began to look around. She heard the sound of a twig snapping, and her cat ears and tail popped out in surprise. As a reflex, her hands flew up to the ears to make an attempt to cover them, giving her pursuer enough time to shoot up the tree that was casting the shadow. Ichigo looked up at the branches of the tree. She saw mainly twigs, branches, a few speckles of darkness and a whole mess of leaves. However, she also saw a very, _very_ familiar silhouette, cleverly hiding itself. She took a deep breath.

"Kisshu, get down here now." Ichigo groaned.

Kisshu listened to her as he descended from the tree, stopping about an inch from the ground. He smirked, showing his pointy teeth at the corners of his mouth.

"How did you know it was me?" His smile widened.

"Took a wild guess. Now, would you mind telling me why you're following me?" Ichigo asked, her voice full of contempt.

"Felt like it." Kisshu shrugged, leaning up against the trunk of the tree. "I wanted to talk to you, so I was looking for a good opportunity to scare you a little. By the way, did it work?"

Ichigo's face was flushing a beet red. "Well, I'm talking to you now. What do you want with me?" she asked as her hands flew to her sides.

"Not much, just thought we could chat or something. It's been a little while since I've heard your voice, or even seen you for that matter," he began to say, when he was promptly interrupted by Ichigo.

"Might I ask why you care?"

Kisshu's smile faded. He then leaned forward and placed a hand on Ichigo's cheek. She slapped it away.

"It seems that everything I do angers you." Kisshu frowned, a confused look in his eyes.

"Stop following me. Then maybe I'll be willing to talk to you. But not before then. Besides, haven't you annoyed me enough the past year?" Ichigo explained.

"Man, you know how to hurt a guy. I go out of my way to come here so we can talk, and you brush me off." Kisshu said, obviously trying to be serious. However, the slight teasing tone in his voice gave him away. He was enjoying this.

"I need to get to school, I can't talk right now." Ichigo shook her head, sending her hair flying around in the breeze.

Kisshu didn't say anything. What he did do, however, was look at the sky, grab her wrist and teleport with her in his hand. When they arrived at his destination seconds later, Ichigo almost screamed, but Kisshu's hand flung itself up to her mouth to stifle her shriek.

"Ssshhh!" Kisshu whispered. But before Ichigo could ask him where they were, he was already gone. Ichigo took a second to realize where she was, but only a second. She was behind another tree, but this one was…

"OH GOD! I'm late for school!" Ichigo panicked as she ran out from behind the tree and into the doors of her school.

Ichigo began to look around the hallways, only to find that the hallways were deserted. Not a single person was at their lockers, hanging around or getting ready for classes. Ichigo dropped her book bag at her feet as she moaned and fell to her knees. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a knife flew right past where her head was seconds before. The knife stuck in the wall opposite the hallway. Ichigo's eyes flew wide open as she noticed that she had only just missed being impaled by it. There was a dark, mysterious shape standing right behind her. Her heart began to beat faster.

Suddenly, another shape threw itself at her, saving her from another knife that would've struck the exact point where her heart was. Then the other shape howled in pain. She hustled to her feet and began to run away, when she noticed some sort of liquid, making its way across the floor.

_Blood._

Ichigo forced herself to turn around and face her assailant. She couldn't quite make out its face, so she did something she thought she would definitely regret later. She ran up to the attacker, dodging another knife in the process. When she was close enough, Ichigo leaped into the air and landed with both feet on the attacker's toes. Let me tell you, it wasn't a gentle landing. It was a stomp of the "rather fierce" variety, the kind where you stomp with your heel, as well as bending your knees in the jump and flexing them as you're landing. This kind of stomp, I've preformed before, and it HURTS your victim. The attacker cried out in pain, and vanished a second later. Ichigo then turned around, and what she saw scared the living daylights out of her.

The shape that knocked her out of the way was Kisshu, and he was lying semi-conscious on the floor with a knife in his leg. He was also (notably) lying in a pool of what looked to be his own blood. Ichigo nearly fainted at the sight of him, sprawled on the ground breathing heavily. Instead, however, she raced up to him and knelt down.

"Why would you do that?" Ichigo stammered. "Why would you knock me out of the way like that?"

"So… a shadow can come in handy…" Kisshu groaned, barely making any audible words. "I did it… so you wouldn't get hit…"

Ichigo was shocked. Then, she began to cry a little as she tore off a part of her school uniform and placed it on Kisshu's wound. It was a futile attempt though, for the cloth was soaked in a matter of seconds. Kisshu raised his hand and placed it on the part of her body he could reach from where he was lying, which was her thigh. Then, everything went fuzzy as he teleported both of them away from the school.

Kisshu had teleported them to a strange place. They were in the center of a floor that looked like it was made of some sort of stone, but it was glowing. The walls were glass. Through them, Ichigo could see millions of stars. There were control panels covered in strange symbols all over the place, and there were what appeared to be floating stairs leading to platforms.

Ichigo stopped taking in what she was observing for a second and looked down at a very unconscious Kisshu, who was still bleeding. Ichigo gasped. She picked him up and began to look everywhere for something she could use. Eventually, she came to a door which led to a very messy room. It had a bed in it, so Ichigo took it and put it to good use. She set Kisshu down on the floor as she rushed to tear off the blankets and sheets. She then threw the blankets aside, to the corner of the room. She lifted Kisshu up to the bed and set him down on it. Ichigo bit down on her bottom lip hard. Then she closed her eyes and pulled the knife out of Kisshu's leg. More blood began to gush out, and he was beginning to look paler than usual. Ichigo took the sheets and wrapped them lightly around Kisshu's bleeding leg.

_That's going to have to do for now… _Ichigo thought to herself as she paced the room, groping around her mind for something to do about the situation at hand. _Look for water. Yes, water's good. Look for some water. _She snapped her fingers and ran out of the room. She began to walk what she thought at this point to be a hallway, peering into doorways for a bathroom or _something _of the same nature. Ichigo began to panic slightly, until she had finally opened a door that led to what looked like a large, crystal fountain. Ichigo made a relieved sound of sorts as she ran into the fountain room. There were a few bowls on a table on the inside of the room. She took one and dunked it into the water, which was quite cold to touch, like there was ice in it. The bowl came out full of the icy liquid.

"That'll have to do for now…" Ichigo mumbled to herself as she walked back toward the room with Kisshu in it.

_Should I check out the other rooms so I won't have to later? _Ichigo wondered to herself. Shortly after, however, she gave herself a mental slap in the face. _Kisshu's dying back there, and you want to explore? Forget it! Save him first!_

Ichigo arrived back at the room. She cleared off a table and placed the bowl full of water on it. She turned to the foot of the bed. There was a dresser of drawers up against the wall. Ichigo smiled.

"Ah!" she exclaimed. She walked over to the dresser and opened one of the drawers near the middle. Inside were some messily folded clothes that looked like Kisshu's regular attire.

_This must be his bedroom. _Ichigo thought to herself. She lifted Kisshu's leg and set it on the open drawer, after emptying it so he wouldn't bleed all over his clothes. But she had just thrown them on the floor. After propping his leg up, Ichigo tore off another part of her uniform and wet it in the bowl of water. She then unwrapped the sheet around his wound. Part of the sheet was stained red. Kisshu had stopped bleeding, but Ichigo wasn't sure whether or not this was a good thing, considering how much blood there was earlier. She took the soaked piece of fabric and began to clean the blood off of his leg. Just now, Ichigo was realizing that she was going to lose her uniform entirely if she kept this up. She tried to shake off the thought of being naked when Kisshu woke up.

_Or if… No, don't think that way! Wait, what am I saying?_ _Kisshu's my enemy! What do I care if he dies? _Ichigo thought to herself, biting her nails. She took another look at Kisshu, lying on his bed, totally unconscious. Ichigo shook her head. _I care a lot if he dies after saving my life, at the risk of his own._ Then Ichigo thought about it for a second. _Like he's done on several other occasions…_

Ichigo shook off the thought as she re-wrapped the bed sheet around Kisshu's leg. Ichigo then turned to the garments she had tossed aside earlier. She sighed quietly.

"Why me? I'm a good person. Why can't my life be normal?" Ichigo muttered to herself. She sighed, bending down to pick up a set of Kisshu's clothes. She gnawed at the inside of her cheek, breathing heavily, trying not to say anything about the way she felt about the current situation. That was, embarrassed as Hell. She left the room muttering profanities under her breath. She felt weird about changing clothes in the same room as Kisshu, even if he was unconscious.

Ichigo had changed into Kisshu's clothes. They were a bit tight and they smelled of Kisshu as well as some sort of moss, but they were otherwise a good fit. She felt really weird wearing these, but it would have to do. Ichigo slumped back into the bedroom and plopped herself down on the floor and waited.

Ichigo was hungry. It had been two days since Kisshu had teleported the two of them to this place, which Ichigo had at this point realized was a spaceship of some kind. It had also been two days since he had fallen unconscious. Ichigo had started to get extremely worried after he hadn't woken up before she went to sleep the first night. Not that she could tell it was night, because they were in space, but she fell asleep when she got tired. She had searched the ship over and over and over again for food, but she didn't find anything she was sure was edible. Ichigo was sitting on the edge of the bed, constantly checking Kisshu's pulse. He was definitely still alive, but Ichigo wasn't sure how long he could last without water. She had tried pouring some water into his mouth, but it just flowed back out.

_I mean, the aliens have made it evident that they can survive without oxygen… _Ichigo set her head in her hands and attempted to use the thought for optimism. It wasn't exactly working.

_What do I do? _Ichigo thought, sniffling a little. Her stomach was roaring with hunger. Ichigo couldn't take it. She began to shake, her body being racked with sobs. Suddenly, she heard a quiet muttering sound from behind her, and suddenly, she perked up. Ichigo whipped her head around to face Kisshu.

"…mmm… whuz… whuz-uh… hmm…" he muttered something unintelligible. Ichigo grinned, tears still flowing from her eyes. She practically fell on Kisshu, which caused him to grunt and shut his eyes tightly. Then, before she could do anything otherwise, Ichigo kissed Kisshu right on the lips. His lips were strangely warm, but they were soft. The moment she realized what she was doing, though, she stopped. However, she couldn't stop being overjoyed at Kisshu's survival.

"Kisshu! You're alive!" Ichigo beamed, pulling Kisshu up and toward her body, squeezing him like a rag doll. This caused him to open his eyes a little, and make some more murmuring noises. The first thing he noticed was the fact that Ichigo was clinging to him like a periwinkle. The second thing was the fact that she was wearing his clothes. This made Kisshu chuckle a little bit to himself.

_She's happy I'm alive! _Kisshu thought as his face brightened up. _And, to top it all off, she _kissed _me! _This was potentially Kisshu's best day ever. However, he then felt a sharp pain in his head and the feeling, along with his smile, disappeared.

"I hope I'm alive anyway… I don't feel it." Kisshu mumbled, rubbing his temples with his semi-free hands. "What happened?"

"I went to school… and then I got attacked by someone or some_thing_ that threw knives. You saved my life by pushing me out of the way, I guess. You took one of its knives in your leg." Ichigo gestured toward Kisshu's leg. "Then it vanished, and you teleported us here. Then I realized that it was a Saturday, and this incident shouldn't have happened at all. That was two days ago." Kisshu's eyes widened.

"I was asleep for two days?" Kisshu stammered. "Oh, God! You must be starving!"

Ichigo nodded slightly, looking downwards at her feet. Kisshu threw himself off the bed, wincing in pain as he landed on his injured leg. Ichigo got up to support him before he collapsed onto the ground.

"Why don't you just tell me what to look for, and I'll go get it." Ichigo gave a light chuckle.

"Uh… Yeah. Umm… Let's see… We're in my bedroom, so… Go down the stairs and the wall you're facing at the bottom. Go to it, and walk along it. The first door on your left, you go inside. There's a whole bunch of stuff. You can eat anything but the furniture." Kisshu explained. "Don't eat the furniture." He muttered, attempting to ease the tension that was hovering in the air all around them. Ichigo smiled and begun to head off, when Kisshu asked something. "Can you bring me back something too, please?"

Ichigo nodded, then stopped, turning back to Kisshu.

"Why don't you just fly there?"

"I can't seem to. I tried that when I got up, that's why I fell. And I obviously can't walk, so I have to stay here for a while." Kisshu replied. He looked at Ichigo, once again noticing the fact that she was in his clothes. Kisshu licked his top lip a little. The action was so quick, if you were to blink you would have missed it. "Could you tell me why you're in my clothes?"

"I used up the fabric of my uniform in cleaning the blood off your wound, so I put on your clothes." Ichigo explained. "You're a size smaller than I am." Kisshu cracked a smile and stifled a small laugh.

"Sorry for holding you up. Go eat something." Kisshu was staring at her. He was now looking around his room, observing what Ichigo had been doing for the past two days. He noticed how neat his room was compared to how he'd left it before. Everything was still in piles, but they were neat piles. Kisshu was sort of thankful for this. He had forgotten how large this room was. He noticed that a few of his sketches were lying around on a couple of the tables and vice versa.

_Ichigo must've been going through them… _he thought to himself, his face taking on a worried expression. He didn't want her to look at his drawings. His drawings of his life. The Mew Mews, his friends, his family, his home, and Ichigo. But mostly Ichigo. He groaned and fell back onto his bed, hitting it with a light thump.

"Craaap…" Kisshu mumbled into his pillow. He rolled over on his back and looked at the ceiling, a small frown on his face. He waited for a few seconds, then sat up. He looked at his wounded leg. It was covered by his bed sheet, which had a coat of dried blood on it. Kisshu sighed. He began to unwrap the makeshift bandage. There was a scar on his left leg. It was clean, but it was very visible that the gash had been a deep one.

"Why was I chosen for this mission? If I hadn't been, my life would sure as _Hell _be easier to understand…" Kisshu thought out loud.

_But it would definitely be a lot more boring…_ he thought, a smirk taking over the frown that had settled on his face.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was stuffing her face with alien food. At this point, she didn't care if a human metabolism couldn't handle it or if it could. She was just starving. However much she was eating, Ichigo was making absolutely sure she didn't get anything on Kisshu's clothes. They weren't hers, after all. Ichigo grabbed what looked like an apple crossed with a lemon. It tasted more like a lemon, but it was very filling. Ichigo picked up a couple more of them to bring back to the room. As she was climbing the stairs, she stopped in her tracks and touched the fingers of her free hand to her lips.

_I kissed Kisshu. Why did I kiss him? WHY? _Ichigo wondered. But for whatever the reason, she had enjoyed the kiss. _What am I _thinking_? I love _Masaya_! I wouldn't just abandon him for my worst enemy! _Ichigo shook off the feeling and continued walking, only to immediately stop again.

_If Kisshu's my worst enemy, then why was I begging him to be alive for nearly three days?_

Ichigo opened the bedroom drawer to Kisshu, who was sitting up on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. This action was only visible for a second, because he stopped when he heard the door opening. But that small second was enough for Ichigo to see him like this.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, throwing Kisshu the lemonfruit. He caught it, and turned to Ichigo, blushing slightly. Out of rage or embarrassment, Ichigo couldn't tell.

"Did you go through my sketches?" Kisshu asked her, his voice neutral.

"I didn't know I wasn't supposed to… But if it helps, they're all very good." Ichigo answered, sitting down next to him. She was blushing too. "You drew me a lot."

"Yeah. I guess I do, I like to draw you." Kisshu replied. He tried to stand up, and succeeded for a few seconds before his bad leg gave way and he had to sit back down. "We need to find some way to contact your family and your friends. By now they'll be worried sick. Help me up." He held out his arm, and Ichigo grabbed it and pulled Kisshu into a standing position. He balanced on his good leg, attempting to put minimal pressure on his bad leg. Eventually, it was possible for him to stand. Then Ichigo helped Kisshu into the hallway and down the stairs. He motioned where to go, and eventually, they reached the command room.

Kisshu groaned and plopped himself into a chair in front of a large window viewing into the starry black sky and control panel, which was covered in the strange symbols from various places on the ship. His fingers began to dart around the control panel. Ichigo placed her hand on Kisshu's shoulder, and he froze. He turned to Ichigo and was seriously tempted to tell her something about his way of life. But, he just shook it off and continued typing, until she began to massage his shoulders.

"Are you giving me a massage?" Kisshu asked her quietly.

"You looked like you needed one. You're very stressed out." Ichigo replied.

"On my planet, a simple _touch_ is a symbol of extreme care for someone." Kisshu blurted out, before he could stop himself. Ichigo's eyes widened as she withdrew her hands from his shoulders. Kisshu stifled a (if you may please forgive the childish expression…) FacePalm (a FacePalm is when you hit your forehead in a manner as to say 'Oh SHIT why did I even say that?') as he continued typing.

Ichigo removed her hands from Kisshu's shoulders, her face turning red. After a few seconds of thinking, she spoke.

"On Earth it isn't." Ichigo smiled slightly. She was still just happy he was alive and helping her get home, even if it was without success.

_Wow… why did that happen? _Kisshu thought to himself. _Weird… what's going on, exactly?_

*Well, that's my very first chapter out of God knows how many. If you enjoyed my first chapter, then I highly suggest leaving some reviews so I know what I may be able to do next in the story.

I guess you could say that Kisshu was surprised that Ichigo would still touch him after what he told her. But, it's not like he was complaining. It's fair to say that he was enjoying it a lot.

The more I go over this chapter, the more I see bits of other stories in it. I have a bad feeling that I'm going to get a whole lot of scolding reviews. Please don't hate me or sue me. Just forgive me for similarities. It wasn't on purpose, I promise.

Kisshu: I can't believe you stopped it at the good part. I hate you.

Aelerra: Don't hate me. The story will continue, I promise. At least, provided I get some good reviews from the random people who read my story. Every little bit helps!

Kisshu: Now you sound like a charity.

Aelerra: Oh, just shut up. Stop hating me.

Ichigo: You stopped it at the good part. You're so mean. I hate you.

Aelerra: Oh, damn it. Not you, too! Oh, whatever. I hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope you'll read future chapters.

Well, that's it. Oh, and one more thing. If you're one of those people who can't stand cliff-hangers, PLEASE refrain from leaving any reviews asking about mysterious aspects of the story, such as…

"Who is the mystery attacker?"

"Will we get to see more Kisshu X Ichigo parts?"

"What else will happen?" (this one is a big 'DUH')

YOU'LL FIND OUT.

Bye! =D*


	2. Contact

Enemy Mine?

Chapter 2: Contact

**Disclaimer/Author's Note: ***Hi, readers! If you're reading this right now, it means I got enough nice reviews from previous readers (if you're one of them, THANK YOU!) to motivate me to finish. By the way, last time, the underscores at the end didn't register, so I'm trying something else. As for last time, it ended when there was a little star. As for the conversation, I won't do that again. Anyway, where we left off, Kisshu and Ichigo were on a spaceship of some sort, after a strange, well, stranger attacked Ichigo at school with throwing knives. Kisshu pushed Ichigo out of the way of one aimed at her heart, only to get hit by it in her stead. Disclaimers: If you're watching the anime right now, you might want to know something.

_**SPOILER ALERT!**_

I also don't own any of the characters (at least, not quite yet) OR Tokyo Mew Mew, I'm just writing a fanfic about it. Don't sue me, I'm only 13. Anyway, enjoy the story!*

"_You failed again, fool. I'm seriously beginning to doubt your loyalty."_

"_That girl broke my Goddamn foot! What was I supposed to do?"_

"_Finish the job, or face the consequences."_

"_But, sir, I-"_

"_SILENCE! I want Ichigo Momomiya dead, and I want her dead NOW!"_

"_Y-y-yes, s-s-sir."_

"_And I leave you with your full assurance that the job will be done this time?"_

"_Yes sir."_

"_Because. You don't want to know what would happen if you were to mess up again."_

"_-gulp…- No sir."_

Kisshu shot upright in his bed, breathing heavily. He looked around his room, expecting something. He didn't know exactly what, but _something _was wrong. Kisshu was absolutely sure of it. He stepped out of his bed, testing out his bad leg. It had definitely healed well, but it still throbbed with pain on occasion. Kisshu left the room, walking through the hallway in his bare feet. The floor seemed to be humming with energy, which of course, it was. He came to a door at the end of a hallway. There was a sign on the door, with alien symbols on it. They translated directly into 'Taruto's Bedroom. Keep out.'. Kisshu opened the door. There were pictures of Pudding that Taruto had forced Kisshu to draw for him all over the walls. Kisshu grinned, thinking about Taruto having pin-ups.

Kisshu stepped quietly up to the bedside. Ichigo was sleeping peacefully. She looked comfortable, blankets wrapped around her body. She was snoring quietly, and she had a small smile on her face.

_She must be having a nice dream… _Kisshu thought. _Huh. Should I wake her?_ He wondered, tapping his chin. He took another look at Ichigo's sleeping form and decided against it. He placed his hand on hers, and Ichigo's smile widened. She sighed. Kisshu smiled slightly, rose, and left the room, his steps silent against the floor. He walked down to the control room and set himself down in a chair, stationed in the center of the room in front of a panel. He cracked his knuckles and began typing.

Kisshu was trying to contact his comrades to let them know about the situation at hand. However, progress had been… less than satisfactory. In other words, nothing had happened yet. Kisshu pounded on the control panel in exasperation.

_Why can't we just teleport out? WHY? _Kisshu grumbled to himself. Then, his ears pricked as he heard the sound of footsteps. He poked his head out of the control room and saw a dark shape emerge from thin air. Kisshu's eyes widened. Silently stepping into the main room, he watched as the shape began to ascend up the stairs. Kisshu was on high alert, as twin fen swords appeared, one in each hand. The figure walked into the door at the end of the hallway. Taruto's bedroom.

_Ichigo! _Kisshu's mind began to race. He darted up the stairs and into the bedroom, where the shape was gliding across the floor toward the bed. His leg throbbed with pain, but he didn't care at all at this point. It was reaching for something on its person, but before it could get whatever it was reaching for, Kisshu had tackled the shape to the ground, making a loud thudding noise.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was awoken by the loud sound. She sat up in the bed and tried to comprehend what was going on. A light flicked on in the room, and Ichigo saw Kisshu fighting with someone else. It was hard to describe the other person's face, because he was wearing a deep purple scarf around most of it. But what caught her attention was the fact that Kisshu was fighting whoever it was. Ichigo snapped back to reality. She hopped out of the bed, not caring at all about the fact that she was in nothing but her undergarments. Her body, however, disagreed, and her cat ears popped out. She joined in the fight, picking up details about the opponent alongside.

Like I said before, he was wearing a deep purple scarf around every part of his face but his eyes and his ears. His ears were those of the aliens, and his eyes were a bright shade of cyan blue. He held a nasty-looking bastard sword in his right hand, and wore full-body assassin attire that was the same colour as the purple scarf. Ichigo thought to herself that purple… really wasn't his colour.

_What am I saying? This is no time for fashion tips! _Ichigo gave herself a mental smack on the cheek as she continued trying to fight.

Kisshu was frantically trying to avoid being hit by the sword as he was trying to protect Ichigo from the blows it dished out. Taking both of his swords, he defended against an attack that would've sliced him right in half. Holding back the bastard sword, Kisshu motioned frantically for Ichigo to do something, and quickly. Ichigo ran beside Kisshu and gave the mystery person a roundhouse kick to the stomach. He grunted and fell back, dropping his sword. It slid across the ground, out of arms reach from anyone.

Kisshu groped at the scarf around the attacker's face, but before he could manage to get it off, the attacker disappeared.

"Damn it!" Kisshu shouted, throwing his swords to the floor.

Ichigo picked up the sword to examine it. She then took a closer look at the hilt and her eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" Kisshu ran up to Ichigo, who was kneeling on the floor.

"I-I-I… I… I recognize this sword." Ichigo stammered, fear taking hold of her voice.

"Tell me, where from?" Kisshu questioned, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"This is the sword the Blue Knight uses." Ichigo turned to look up at him, her eyes wide. "Something bad must've happened to him."

_Meanwhile, back at the Café Mew Mew…_

Ichigo had been missing for close to a week, though this didn't stop Ryou and Keiichiro from opening up shop, and forcing business as usual. Only now did the four remaining Mews realize what kind of work Ichigo had to do at the Café, because this work _definitely_ piled on to their existing work. For three days in a row, Mint's precious tea-time was constantly interrupted by her duties as it never had been before. Not only that, but the Café had been exceedingly popular for that past week.

It was the end of the day. Everyone had collapsed on a chair except for Pudding, who had simply fallen asleep on the floor.

"If we don't find Ichigo soon, I might die of over-exertion…" Mint groaned loudly, as she let her head fall forward onto the table nearest to her chair.

"Where could she be?" Lettuce mumbled. Even though she was tired, you could hear her voice in panic.

"She disappeared on Saturday morning. Where would she be on a Saturday?" Zakuro sighed, her usual cool abandoning her.

"One thing's for sure, if she comes back alive, I'm_ definitely_ going to kill her." Mint groaned, reaching for a bottle of water.

Pudding just snored.

"Girls, we have some good news and some bad news." Ryou announced, stepping out of the back room of the Café. Lettuce bent down and shook Pudding awake, and they were led by Ryou into the back room, then down a flight of stairs into the laboratory. In the center of the room, there was an enormous computer screen, surrounded by many keyboards and two chairs. Keiichiro was sitting in one of them. On the computer screen were two faces, both with relieved smiles pasted to them.

"Mew Ichigo!" Pudding cried out with glee as she ran up to the giant screen.

Ichigo smiled and waved. Everyone's eyes fell from her face to her attire, noticing the fact she was wearing Kisshu's clothes.

"Why are you…" Ryou asked, pointing at Ichigo.

"Long story." Ichigo stopped, and it was blindingly obvious that she wanted to continue talking, before she was promptly interrupted by Mint.

"Where have you been?" she asked, a scolding tone in her voice. But it was clear that they were all delighted to see her. However, they weren't nearly as delighted to see the face next to Ichigo's. "Kisshu! What did you do to Ichigo?" Mint shouted at the screen.

Ichigo began to jabber before anyone else could say anything. "He saved my life twice, that's what he did to me! If I were a hostage, I wouldn't be talking to you right now!" she had totally lost it. Whether she was happy or angry, or just plain relieved to be talking to her teammates, she just kept on babbling and she didn't show any signs of stopping. "In fact, I would never have talked to you, any of you, ever again if Kisshu hadn't cared enough to take me here! But, oh thank freaking GOD I can talk to all of you again!"

"Ichigo, calm down!" Kisshu shushed her, and Ichigo calmed down. "The thing is, we need help. I trust that, by now, you've told Ichigo's family that she's… I don't know, having a week-long sleepover or something."

"Yeah, when she didn't show up by the end of work, we told her parents she was going to be out of town until further notice on a school trip." Keiichiro explained. "Just in case."

"Good." Kisshu nodded. "Now, I don't have control over any of my usual abilities here. That means, I can't fly, teleport, summon Chimeras or enhance my senses." In the background, Ichigo muttered to him a quiet '_huh?' _which was stopped by a hush. Kisshu continued explaining the situation calmly to the Mew team. "In other words, we can't get out of here. We were hoping you might have something to contribute."

"Unfortunately not, sorry." Ryou answered, shrugging.

"More importantly, somebody's trying to kill me." Ichigo added. "Just hours earlier, an alien teleported to the ship and tried to assassinate me with the same sword the Blue Knight uses, if not one that was extremely similar. Something might've happened to him."

"Wait. Nothing happened to Masaya, I saw him the other day. He was looking for you, actually." Lettuce explained.

"Yes, that's all fine and good. But after whoever it was attacked Ichigo, it teleported off the ship, so we've confirmed that teleporting is possible, just not for me." Kisshu explained. Then the monitor went fuzzy and dark.

"We're losing you!" Ryou shouted into the bad connection.

"I can confirm that! None of you need to worry, I'll take care of Ichigo! We'll keep trying to get out of here. Make sure to tell Pai and Taruto not to telep-" Kisshu's voice was barely audible. That's not to say it wasn't loud, it was plenty loud. The words were indistinguishable from the static in the background. They had a bit more bad connection, and then the screen went blank.

"So that's what happened." Pudding exclaimed, still staring at the blank monitor.

"She doesn't seem to be enjoying herself there. I wonder why she was so angry at me for asking what was going on?" Mint muttered under her breath.

"Because you weren't being very nice to Kisshu, Mint." Zakuro explained. "You tend to jump to conclusions more often than anyone would care to admit." Mint looked at Zakuro with a perplexed expression, but she continued to talk. "But I'm sure she'll get over it soon. She didn't sound too angry."

"I'm hungry…" Lettuce sighed, looking at her feet. "And I'm not so worried anymore, knowing that Mew Ichigo is safe. Wherever she is." Everyone else looked at Lettuce with shocked expressions plastered to their faces.

"What makes you think Ichigo is safe with Kisshu?" Ryou crossed his arms. He was clearly worried, but part of him seemed confident that this was the truth.

"I don't know. But she didn't seem too incredibly anxious to get out of wherever she is." Lettuce replied. "I mean, she clearly isn't enjoying herself, but still…"

"More importantly, we need to explain this to Pai and Taruto." Zakuro muttered.

"Well? Does anyone know where they might be?" Keiichiro asked.

The silence was deafening. That is, until Pudding raised her hand.

"What is it, Pudding?" Ryou asked, looking at the little girl.

"Taru-Taru has a cell phone that I gave to him." Pudding's face took on a shade of bright crimson.

"What? How the Hell did you get your hands on a cell phone?" Mint stared at Pudding with a strange look in her eyes.

"I used my Café money to buy it." Pudding crossed her arms, facing all the Mew Mews. "Am I not allowed to spend it?"

"Yes, Pudding, you're allowed to spend it. But… Do you have one yourself?" Keiichiro asked her.

"Mmm-hmm!" Pudding nodded.

"You're eight, Pudding." Lettuce stared at her with a look that screamed 'WEIRD…'.

"And… can you explain why didn't you tell us this?" Mint complained.

"It was a private gift." Pudding shrugged, like nothing was wrong. Then, she pulled a little white cell phone out of her apron's pocket and began to dial a number. Then she held it to her ear.

"_Hello?"_

"Hello, Taru-Taru! It's Pudding!"

"_Pudding! Hi! Is there something wrong?"_

"Yes. Ichigo and Kisshu are trapped in a spaceship somewhere and we need you and Pai here as soon as possible!"

"_I'll be right there. Bye!"_

"Wait. Kisshu says you shouldn't teleport, but then he got cut off by static."

"Tell him that we all think he didn't mean teleporting altogether, just not to where he is now!" Mint shouted in the background.

"No, I'm still here. Everyone says that Kisshu didn't mean you couldn't teleport at all, just to the place he is now." Pudding returned to the phone.

"_Is that it?"_

"Yes. Please hurry!"

Pudding closed the cell phone and dropped it back in her pocket. She saw out of the corner of her eye that everyone was staring at her.

"That was… oddly mature…" Lettuce murmured to herself. Pudding began to tap her foot impatiently, checking her watch. Everyone was still staring at her, eyes wide.

"Where is he?" Pudding muttered under her breath. Literally nanoseconds after she said this, Taruto and Pai teleported into the Café.

"Tell us more about this situation." Pai said, coolly.

…

*There! Another chapter behind me. What's the matter, readers? Didn't know Pudding had a cell phone? Well, now you do.

I'll keep posting. That is, if I get enough good reviews, or just reviews in general. Sorry, it seems like I'm fishing for compliments, but I could use them to build my confidence. I say again that this is my first story and I'm still not sure if people like it or not.

Bye =D*


	3. Return

Enemy Mine?

Chapter 3: Return

**Disclaimer/Author's Note:***Here it is, Chapter 3! I'm quite happy about this one being posted, because it means I'm now confident about my writing. I feel confident enough now to stop begging for good reviews, but it would still be nice to get some. Special thanks to my Beta, Alpha Flyer, and I say thank you for your support, and now, please enjoy the story!*

The remaining Mews had closed the Café until further notice. Ichigo was stranded on a spaceship somewhere with nobody but Kisshu to interact with. Besides that, the workload was getting too heavy for them to handle with only four people. They hadn't managed to contact them since that last day, but Ryou, Keiichiro and the aliens hadn't stopped trying to talk to their trapped friends again.

The Mews were walking down the sidewalk to the Café, discussing what they should do about Ichigo. Waiting was unbearable, but they couldn't do anything besides. Lettuce sighed heavily as she leaned forward.

"How do you think Mew Ichigo is handling this?" she asked the other three, setting herself down on the curb.

"I would probably be going slightly insane if I had nobody but an alien to talk to for a week." Mint plopped herself down next to Lettuce, her hand on Lettuce's shoulder in attempt to comfort her.

"The question isn't about you, Mint. It's about Ichigo. But you're probably right, nonetheless." Zakuro muttered, and Mint grinned at the praise. Pudding, who was walking in circles a second ago, spoke up.

"I only wish we could do something…" Pudding sighed.

"In the meantime, let's continue to the Café. It's closed, but they might need a hand." Lettuce stood back up, lifting Pudding off the ground and onto her back. Then the four of them continued on their way, unaware that they were being closely examined by the shadow of the mystery assassin, blue eyes gleaming with a dull, soulless light.

"Ichigo! Are you awake yet?" Kisshu's voice echoed through the ship's empty halls. There was no answer. Kisshu started to worry a little for Ichigo's safety. He gave another call up the stairway. When there was still no response, he began to make his way up the stairs to Ichigo's temporary bedroom. He opened the door, revealing Ichigo sitting on the floor hunched over the sword with her eyes fixated on the blade.

"What's wrong?" Kisshu walked up to Ichigo, kneeling next to her. She remained perfectly still as if in a trance. Then, Ichigo began to shake slightly, tears falling from her face and dropping onto the sword in her hands. Kisshu set his hand on her shoulder. Ichigo whipped her head around to face him, just noticing the fact he was there.

"How long have you been sitting there?" she muttered, her eyes puffy and her face as white as snow. Kisshu promptly ignored the question, replying with one of his own.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, wiping a tear from Ichigo's cheek. She pushed his hand away from her face, sniffling. Kisshu, however, wasn't giving up. He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. "Why are you crying?"

"I… I… I…" Ichigo stammered. "I miss my friends…"

"I miss my friends, too." Kisshu mumbled. "I don't have to, but in this situation… I can't simply think of myself. We don't know what happened to my abilities, or if it would happen to Taruto and Pai if they were to come here. If it did, we'd never get out of here."

"Do you think they're trying their hardest? I mean, really trying?" Ichigo gazed blankly at the sword again, trying not to look Kisshu in the eyes. _It's just not fair, how much he cares about me! _She thought to herself.

"They'd better be." Kisshu said bluntly, standing up. His hand was still wrapped around Ichigo's, so he pulled her up too, surprising her a little. She couldn't help but smile slightly at the fact that Kisshu was trying to cheer her up, even if it was in his own strange way. Lost in thought, Ichigo didn't notice Kisshu's grip loosening. As he let go, her hand fell to her side.

_Ichigo? Ichigo… Hellooo… Say something! _Kisshu's voice echoed through her head. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream took the place of thoughts as Ichigo collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

"Gah!" Kisshu shouted to himself, lunging forward to catch Ichigo and half-succeeding. Her head didn't hit the floor, but the rest of her did. He picked the rest of her body up, checking to see if there was anything wrong. Besides some bruises on her knees and upper back from the fall, it seemed she had simply fainted. Kisshu carried Ichigo to Taruto's bed and set her down onto it. Other than that, he wasn't sure what to do. Normally, he'd be able to have her awake in seconds, but without his abilities he was no better than a human.

Thinking this, his eyes fell to the scar on his leg. How Ichigo had managed to fix it (sort of) with limited knowledge of her surroundings.

_Hmm… _

_Maybe there is something I can do…_

Kisshu walked down the hall to the fountain. He grabbed a bowl and filled it with the water from the basin in the center of the room. He walked back to Taruto's bedroom with the water in one hand, trying to see if he could talk himself out of what he was about to do. Unsuccessful, he shrugged and continued. He reached the room and entered, walking up to the bed where Ichigo was lying. Then he dumped the water on Ichigo's face.

She sputtered, her eyes flying open as she sat upright. Ichigo attempted to shake the water off her face, when Kisshu threw her a towel instead.

"What the Hell was that for?" Ichigo yelled. Kisshu simply smirked, his pointy teeth showing slightly as he threw the bowl aside.

"I needed a quick way to wake you up." The smirk disappeared. "You had to have fainted for a reason, and I need to hear it."

"I… don't know what happened exactly." Ichigo rubbed her damp hair with the towel. "All I remember is sort of zoning out. A few seconds later I heard a very loud scream, then everything went dark."

"Hmm…" Kisshu murmured. "Did the scream sound familiar in any way?"

"I recognised it, I'm just not sure from where. I think I may have heard it a few times." Ichigo replied, throwing the towel back to Kisshu. The two of them stopped to think for a few minutes. There was absolute silence.

_Where did that scream come from? _Ichigo wondered to herself. _Where have I heard it before?_

Suddenly her cat ears popped out of her head. Making no effort to hide them, she ran up to Kisshu.

"That scream. That scream belonged to Mew Lettuce." Ichigo huffed, her hands gripping Kisshu's shoulders. It was evident that she was terrified, and very too.

"We should go check if we can contact them, see if there's anything wrong." He muttered, grabbing Ichigo's wrist and pulling her out of the room behind him.

"I can walk, you know!" she whined, trying to loosen Kisshu's hold.

"Then hurry up. We are in an urgent situation, are we not?" Kisshu told Ichigo as he released his hand and kept walking. He turned around, his everlasting smirk on his face. Ichigo rolled her eyes, following him out of the room.

It had been hours with no success. But that didn't stop Kisshu from attempting to re-establish communications with the Café Mew Mew. He was determined to get Ichigo back home, before he even began to worry about what would happen to him. Ichigo was starting to worry about Kisshu. He hadn't slept in days, pushing himself to the absolute limit. It had taken nearly an hour to simply get his attention away from the screen before him. Ichigo sighed. Kisshu looked awful, and she could tell by looking at him that something _was _going to occur.

"Kisshu," Ichigo said, her voice heavy.

"What is it?" he replied, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"You've been just sitting here for almost three days. You need to get some rest." Ichigo replied, physically turning Kisshu away from the massive screen.

"Yeah, I guess you're right… I am tired. But Ria should be here any minute." Kisshu sighed, standing slowly.

"Who is Ria?" Ichigo asked, confused. The name had never come up before, ever. Kisshu began to walk up the stairs, Ichigo, following him, was clearly expecting an answer.

"Ria is my little sister. She visits the ship every two weeks to see how I'm doing. The reason I've been there nonstop is because when I'm not trying to get you back to Earth, I'm trying to tell her not to come until we solve the problem. But evidently, communications are part of the problem itself. There's nothing I can do to stop her from coming." Kisshu explained, kicking the wall in frustration. "It's all my fault we're stuck here, and there's no way to know how to stop others from joining us without any means of contact!" Ichigo grabbed his wrist to stop him from injuring himself.

"Remember how that person managed to get off the ship before?" Ichigo asked, her voice in as calm a tone as she could manage.

"For all we know, somebody could've just teleported him off using outside sources." Kisshu groaned, setting himself down on the ground.

"But there's a chance, however small, that he got out by himself. Maybe your sister could help, if that's the case." Ichigo managed a small grin.

A small sound was heard throughout the ship. Out of instinct, Ichigo's cat ears shot out of her head as she listened for another sound. Kisshu had heard it too, and the tips of his ears were twitching slightly.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" A female voice echoed through the ship. Kisshu then stood up, replied "I'm coming!" and walked down the stairs. Ichigo crawled to the edge of the upstairs platform, watching what was happening below.

There was a small girl, about the height of Mint. She had white-blonde hair that reached her waist. It was rather messy. Her midriff was showing. She wore a skin-tight black top with sleeves that stretched down to her elbows and a matching pair of skin-tight black Capri shorts under a small beige tank top and matching mid-thigh shorts. She had white bandages on both her wrists and ankles, and her feet were bare. Her ears were long and pointy, like Kisshu's and her complexion was paler. Ichigo couldn't hear the conversation because there was too much distance for even her feline ears to detect, but she heard a greeting between the two of them.

_Ria? _Ichigo thought to herself. _Probably… _

Kisshu turned around to face Ichigo. Ria turned around too, spotting Ichigo lying on her stomach on the upstairs platform. Only just then did Ichigo realize that her cat tail was out as well, and it was swaying in the air, causing the bell on it to ring out. Ichigo blushed a little.

"Who are you?" Ria called to Ichigo. She blushed even more as she ran down the stairs to meet her. Ria had the same golden eyes as Kisshu, Ichigo noticed as she got closer. Kisshu turned to Ria and whispered something in her ear. Ria then jumped up into the air, just floating there.

Ichigo had arrived at where the two aliens were conversing. Ria was still floating around as Kisshu grabbed Ichigo by the shoulders and began to shake her.

"Ichigo! We can get you home now!" He sounded exited and extremely relieved. Ria lighted down on the floor next to Ichigo.

"So you're the infamous Ichigo?" Ria grinned, a small pair of pointed teeth showing. "I'm happy to finally meet you. My name is Riana, but my friends call me Ria. I'm Kisshu's younger sister. The one that takes care of his duties while he's gone goofing off on Earth."

"I don't goof off on Earth!" Kisshu whined a little. "I have very important duties to attend to."

"That you peg on me…" Ria muttered. Ichigo giggled a little. "So. Do you always have kitty ears?"

"Ria, can we please focus on the more important stuff first?" Kisshu crossed his arms. "You can fly, but can you teleport?"

Ria closed her eyes and disappeared. Then she reappeared on the other side of the room.

"Excellent!" Kisshu said, clapping his hands together.

"And… you can do this because…" Ria moved her hand in a little circle, motioning for one of the others to finish.

"We don't exactly know why, but my abilities have been cancelled out ever since we teleported here." Kisshu replied. "We've only managed to contact Ichigo's friends long enough to tell them to warn Pai and Taruto away from coming here, and to tell them that we're safe. But I can't do anything else."

"Have you tried moving the ship?" Ria asked.

"YOU CAN MOVE THIS THING?" Ichigo yelled.

"NO, I can't! The engine seems to be finding any excuse possible not to function." Kisshu waved the two girls down.

"Then you need my help for real this time." Ria tapped her chin. "What's in it for me?"

Ichigo's mouth dropped. "Why can't you just help us?"

"Because Kisshu always asks me to do stuff when he doesn't really need my help." Ria shrugged.

"Okay then. What do you want in return for helping us out?" Kisshu groaned, rolling his eyes.

"You need to be home sometimes, too! You can't just hide from your chores on Earth and make me do them in your stead." Ria sniffed. "They're HARD!"

Ichigo wasn't really sure what to think. She saw a few similarities between the two siblings, and a whole lot of differences. Ichigo sighed and interrupted their bickering.

"I know exactly how Ria feels!" the two aliens stared at Ichigo. "My friend Mint doesn't do any work in the Café, she just lazes around and drinks her tea, and she only ever pitches in when there's a real emergency."

"That doesn't really solve anything, though." Kisshu muttered.

"I was only kidding, though. Sure, I'll help, but Kisshu has to be at home once in a while!" Ria complained.

Both Kisshu and Ichigo groaned, but they grabbed Ria's wrists anyway, and she teleported them off the ship.

Two things were for sure.

One, they were back on Earth.

Two,

Earth was a mess.

….

*Chapter 3 is finally finished! It was tedious, but delightful thinking up this chapter. I don't have much else to say but review, review, review! It really does help!

Bye for now =D*


	4. Realization

Enemy Mine?

Chapter 4: Realization

**Disclaimer/Author's Note: **God, did this chapter ever take a long time to write. Glad to have it out of the way. Has anybody figured out who the assassin is yet? If not, it's okay. I'll just stop going on and on and on and just start the story. Enjoy!

I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, but I do own the plot. Don't sue me. And I might want to add that there are some spoilers as well.*

Ichigo screamed at the sight of Tokyo when Ria was finished teleporting. Kisshu put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, the expression on his face as shocked as hers.

There was smoke, spiralling upwards from every building. Rubble was everywhere, lying around on the ground in chunks varying in size from dust to blocks nearly the size of most houses. Everything was demolished, and everywhere you looked you could see burn marks and enormous craters. A few blobs of broken PuddingRings were scattered here and there.

Ichigo dropped to her knees, her eyes open as wide as they could go.

"What happened?" she muttered, her voice choppy and tense. Ichigo felt like her heart had turned to stone and dropped down into her stomach. In her heart she knew what had happened. Tokyo had died while she was in outer space with Kisshu. Another thing she knew deep down inside was if Kisshu hadn't saved her, she would be a part of this mess. Together, the two of them began to walk around, investigating the wreckage. Ria was nowhere to be found.

"I don't know… but…" Kisshu began, then froze halfway through his sentence. His entire body tensed, flashing back to when Deep Blue had annihilated Japan with one blow to the ground with his sword.

Not noticing, Ichigo fell forward, breaking into a run as she made her way in the direction of Café Mew Mew. Kisshu was running after her, still unable to fly, calling something out. Ichigo couldn't hear him. All she was thinking was what happened to her friends.

She reached the park, or rather, where the park used to be, and entered. Racing toward the Café, her heart pounding. Ichigo looked around, but she saw nothing but dark haze. Kisshu caught up to her, panting from trying to keep up with her. (**A/N **Before you say that Kisshu is out-of-shape in the reviews, he's panting because he's not used to running, because he's able to fly.)

"What's with the rush?" Kisshu muttered under his breath. Ichigo simply stared at the deep fog before her, unblinking. "What's wrong, Kitten?"

"There's something behind this mess." Ichigo smiled feebly. "My friends are only hiding. They're as scared of this ruin as me." Kisshu recognised this tone of voice, once again from the Deep Blue incident. Ichigo had spoken like this when she was in denial of Masaya being gone.

_This isn't how she should be feeling… _Kisshu thought, a small frown on his face.

"Well, we'll never know unless we go check on them." He tried to smile, keeping the sadness at bay. For now, at least, Ichigo had calmed down.

"What is this stuff, anyway?" she muttered, her voice returning to a neutral tone. Leaning forward, Ichigo held her hand in the mist, but quickly withdrew it with a shriek of pain. Kisshu immediately ran forward, steadying Ichigo as she held her hand in front of her face.

It was coated in burn blisters.

Ichigo gasped at the wounds on her hand. Kisshu motioned for her to sit on the dry, cracked earth as he knelt next to her. He removed one of the bandages on his arms, and wrapped it around Ichigo's burned hand. She couldn't help but notice what the skin on Kisshu's wrist was like. All the aliens had something covering their wrists and ankles, and she had always been curious as to what they were hiding.

There was a small, dark blue pattern on the inside of his forearm. It resembled a thin line with a semi-circular design at the end nearest the elbow.

"What's that?" Ichigo asked, pointing at the marking. Kisshu covered it with his free hand, blushing.

"I guess I could tell you…" Kisshu muttered under his breath. "This marking gives us abilities like flight and teleportation. This one, along with its twin on my other arm, is for teleportation. It's supposed to glow when these abilities are being used, but mine won't. I don't know why, though. Pai and Taruto have them too." He explained as Ichigo rubbed at her hand.

"And you hide them… why?" she asked, motioning for Kisshu to continue.

"Only on Earth. There's something in the air, nitrogen, that makes the markings unstable, usually resulting in something exploding. Have you ever seen a huge lightning strike?"

Ichigo nodded. She had seen a few of these. Blue lightning, nearly twice as large as a normal flash. She had usually simply hidden under the bed when there was a storm like that.

"That happens when these marks are uncovered and our powers are used." Kisshu finished. "So it would be rather bad to expose these if you want to stay alive."

"Wait—how long have the aliens been coming to Earth?" she remembered seeing them a lot as a toddler.

"A while now. We've just never acted until the Mew Project began. We wanted to give humans at least a fighting chance, or it would've been too boring." Kisshu explained, and Ichigo sighed.

"Huh." Ichigo muttered. "Okay. In the meantime, how do we cross the acid mist?"

"I have absolutely no idea. How about I see if I can walk around it, just stay here." He said as he stood up. Ichigo watched from the ground as Kisshu walked away.

Just like she did on the day the Mew Mess began, she lay down on the ground and closed her eyes.

_What's going on? I'm so confused… _Ichigo thought. _Why is my enemy helping me? Why does he care? _Her eyes flew wide open in shock.

_Am I… falling for Kisshu?_

Kisshu was walking along the edge of the dense golden haze. The ground was hurting his feet, but he continued walking. He had to find some way to cheer Ichigo up, no matter what happened to him in the process.

The cloud seemed to surround the Café Mew Mew from every direction.

_There has to be some way through it… what is this stuff, anyway? _Kisshu thought, rubbing his forearm. It was a natural thing, the tingling on his skin. It basically warned you that a mark was exposed to something it shouldn't be. Kisshu knew that he couldn't use his powers anyway, so it didn't really affect him whatsoever. Trying to ignore it, he kept attempting to find openings in the barrier. Nothing seemed to be working. Kisshu needed to sit and rest, he felt like he'd been walking for hours on the solid earth.

_Wow… I never realized how dependant I am on flight. _He wondered, unwrapping one of the bandages on his calves. The sapphire-blue mark was there, (not like he expected it wouldn't be) looking like a thin vine wrapping around his leg from knee to ankle. Again, more tingling.

"I have enough to deal with already…" Kisshu mumbled, irritated, as he re-wrapped the bandage over the mark. He stood and continued walking around the perimeter of the fog. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

_I must be out of my mind. _Kisshu thought, rolling his eyes at himself. _Look at what happened to Ichigo. But maybe… _he stopped thinking and thrust his hand –the one with the mark exposed- into the mist. Expecting a burning, he winced. But the feeling didn't come. Instead, what came was a very loud siren, echoing through the empty city. It wouldn't normally have carried far, but it seemed to get louder as the sound blared on.

Ichigo was running toward Kisshu, holding her cat ears in her hands. The alarm had taken her by surprise, and made it worse for her in the process. Kisshu stopped holding his own ears for long enough to reach Ichigo, before realizing that there were shapes closing in on them.

The sonic assault became too much to bear for Ichigo, causing her to topple over and fade out of consciousness. Seeing this, Kisshu figured that it was only a matter of time before he was knocked out as well.

_If only I could block it out… but of course, that's yet _another _natural defense of mine that isn't working. _Kisshu scowled as his swords appeared in hand. _SHIT! It's too loud!_

Fighting to keep the dark figures away from Ichigo and fighting to close off his ears was too much for him, however, and Kisshu fell to the ground beside her in a matter of seconds. After that, there was a sharp pain throughout his body and everything went black.

"_Is she awake yet?"_

"_I see her eyes moving!"_

"_Ichigo's waking up. Keep calm, everyone, and be ready to explain what's going on."_

Ichigo's eyes fluttered open, but immediately shut again when they were exposed to a huge light around her. After blinking a few times, she regained her bounds and began to look around. The floor of the room she was in was made of the same thing as the floors in the ship. The walls were a dark purplish, and there was a large statue in the center of everything. It was carved of some form of black rock, into the shape of a human figure with golden wings emerging from a silver egg. Ichigo's arms were above her, bound to the ceiling of a clear dome. Her legs were just dangling below her. Looking up, she turned to her right to see Mew Mint, restrained in the same manner she was. Mint was looking Ichigo in the eyes, her Mew outfit singed and her hair a mess.

"Where have you been?" she said, her voice almost silent. Ichigo had a hard time hearing, but she could tell what Mint was telling her.

"Mint, don't be rude…" Lettuce's voice sounded from behind Mint.

"We're all pretty glad you finally showed up." Taruto said from somewhere. Ichigo couldn't tell where, but she guessed he was across from her behind the statue. "In a way."

_Stupid statue… can't see a thing.._

"Kisshu still hasn't woken up yet." A voice Ichigo recognised, but couldn't quite place. Looking to her left, she saw Kisshu. He wasn't moving much, but Ichigo could see he was breathing. On the other side of him, Ichigo saw Ria, who gave a small smile.

"We were pretty worried about the two of you when you showed up in here. It took you a while to open your eyes." Ryou had said that.

"It's so good to see you again!" Pudding's voice came from somewhere else behind the statue.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked, surprising herself at the sound of her own voice. It wasn't any louder than anyone else's.

"It was all so fast. First, they were explaining to us what you and Kisshu had told us when you made contact." Pai was speaking now.

"Before we knew it, there were explosions outside." Lettuce continued.

"When I ran to a window for a look at what was going on, there was fire everywhere." Mint explained. "The entire city was on fire."

"Tokyo Mew Mew, to the rescue." Zakuro muttered sarcastically. "Not exactly. We did try to help, but nothing worked."

"Pudding tried her hardest to stop the fires. But the fires melted the PuddingRing." Pudding said. She sounded upset, and was probably tearing up a little.

"The city took a lot of damage, as you probably saw." Keiichiro muttered. "They spared Café Mew Mew to use as a base."

"Can someone please tell me who?" Ichigo yelled impatiently.

"Who? WHO? Ichigo, you really are so naïve." Mint smirked.

"Spare me the scolding, Mint!" Ichigo screamed. "Just tell me who killed my home!"

"Your boyfriend." Zakuro finished bluntly.

"W-w-what?" Ichigo stammered, shocked. "How can you say that?"

"Because it's true." Ryou finished. "The Blue Knight destroyed the city."

"It wasn't that guy, it was _Ne'so-e_! (**A/N **That's pronounced "Nea su-ey", just in case you were reading this out loud) Hey, Kisshu's moving!" Ria interrupted. Everyone turned in Kisshu's direction.

Kisshu was shaking slightly. Then, he began to cough and his eyes opened wide as he looked around at everyone.

"Glad you're finally awake." Pai muttered.

"What happened?" Kisshu glared around the room.

"Very long story." Lettuce tried to muster a smile, but failed.

Kisshu's eyes fell on Ria. "When did you get here?"

"When I teleported here, my signal as an alien was detected and I was somehow re-routed here." Ria explained, trying to shrug, but her arms were paper white and wouldn't support any weight. "_Ne'so-e _caught me immediately and shut me in here."

"What's a _Ne'so-e_?" Ichigo asked. "And what is wrong with everyone's voices?"

"I was just about to say the same thing, I can hardly hear a thing…" Kisshu muttered.

"There's nothing wrong with our voices." Taruto answered, confused.

"What happened before you got sent in here?" Ryou asked the two of them.

"There was this acid vapour surrounding the Café when we got here. It burned my hand." Ichigo gestured to her hand with her head, as it was all she could move.

"Then what?" Pai asked.

"Out of nowhere, this siren began to blare at us. It got increasingly louder and louder, until I passed out." Ichigo explained.

"The siren was my fault, I think…" Kisshu muttered. "I wanted to see what would happen to me if I tried touching it. After a couple of seconds, this alarm was sounding."

Everyone looked at Kisshu, who looked pretty damn embarrassed about what had happened. Ichigo was blushing furiously, trying not to see him.

"I know what happened." Pai said, looking back at Ichigo.

"You two might've been deafened by that siren." Keiichiro finished.

"WHAT?" Ichigo and Kisshu exclaimed together. The idea of deafness wasn't very pleasurable, especially when contained like this. Nothing was going right. This couldn't be happening, whatever was happening.

"So… what happens now that we haven't got a hope to cling to?" Lettuce whimpered.

Silence. Nothing but silence filled the room. This silence, however, was something Ichigo couldn't deal with.

"There's always hope." She muttered.

"Not this time." Zakuro replied. "I hate it too, but you and Kisshu being off Earth was our last chance."

"There's always hope!" Ichigo repeated, louder this time. "I'm sure everyone remembers Deep Blue, right?"

Everyone Ichigo could see nodded.

"We managed to defeat him, even though the odds were against us in every way possible." She continued, managing a thin smile. "I'm sure we can do it this time, if we keep positive."

Ichigo's prep speech was cheering her friends up. Everyone's faces were lighting up at least a little. There were a few reasons Ichigo was the leader, this, her ability to alleviate the tension in a no-win situation like this, was one of them. The optimism was soon cut short, however, by footsteps coming from outside the room.

"_Ne'so-e_!" Ria whispered harshly. "He's coming back!"

"Who's _Ne'so-e?_" Ichigo asked again, impatiently.

"_Ne'so-e _is a mythical demon from our mythology." Kisshu explained, glaring at Ria. "No-True-Soul, in your language. He doesn't exist."

"Yes he does too, and he's coming!" Ria insisted. Just as the words left her mouth, a dark figure entered the room.

The figure stalked to the center of the circular formation in which everyone was being held. The figure belonged to a male. Mostly dark hues of black and purple clothed him, every part of his face but his eyes (a sharp shade of cyan blue) were covered. Alien ears showed on either side of his head. He was holding a sword as long as his leg in one hand. Ichigo took a sharp intake of breath, realizing that this was the one that kept trying to kill her. She kept quiet, hoping she would be overlooked.

It didn't work.

_Ne'so-e _walked right over to where Ichigo was dangling, unable to move. In a surprisingly warm tone of voice, he began to speak to her.

"Hello, Ichigo. I haven't seen you in a long time." He smiled wickedly. "Did you have fun without me?"

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo shouted. "Who are you?"

"Mint was right, you really are so naïve." _Ne'so-e _ignored Ichigo's question, as he continued.

"You could hear what we were saying?" Taruto asked angrily.

"Yes, I could."

"Wah…" Lettuce muttered.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked again, yelling.

"I go by many names. _Ne'so-e_, is one of them." He answered, looking at Ria, who hid her eyes. "So is Deep Blue, and _Ao Kishi, _the Blue Knight. But you probably know me better as Masaya Aoyama."

_Masaya Aoyama._

_Masaya…_

Ichigo came to a shocked realization when the truth was revealed.

Her boyfriend had been trying to kill her.

And she had been stupid enough to refuse what she had known since she saw those eyes before.

Ichigo had known it in her heart the whole time.

After a few more wayward thoughts, Ichigo passed out again, unable to do anything other than dangle limply from the ceiling. Voices she could hardly hear were bouncing around the room, overlapping each other, until everything just went dark.


End file.
